Should you have a news conference to announce your event? Don't reporters like news conferences? What is your event is important? It might be but the general answer is no. The media hate news conferences for two reasons. First, so many people call news conferences, and the media often arrive at the news conference and there's absolutely nothing newsworthy going on. And they feel as though they've just wasted their time. But the bigger reason they hate news conferences is because they feel like a herd of cattle. All the media people go into the same barn, they're all fed the same thing, they're all given the same information, and everybody walks out with the same story. That's the broad-brush approach.

The much better approach is to take the time to meet one-on-one with media people and give them each a different kind of a story that best fits with the audience that their media outlet serves. I think that's a much better approach. Media like exclusivity. They like to know that they might be the only ones on a story or that you can really target different pieces of that story for them. Instead, you could also round up some of the biggest local celebrities you can find and do a special tea with the celebrities where people maybe change tables periodically. You can have all kinds of fun with it. You could do mother/daughter teas for Mother's Day. Look at all the big holidays on the calendar where you can tie in your events to holidays, anniversaries, special celebrations, things like that. For more great information and tips on how to create media buzz for your event, read "How to Create Media Buzz When Promoting Your Special Event."
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